Selecting an IT Support Provider that fits

How do you choose the right managed IT services provider?

Anyone who’s had a bit of building work done knows that picking the wrong firm is a special kind of misery.

I’ve been there. I had my house renovated a few years ago – nothing flashy, just an extension and a bit of replumbing. The first quote I got was for what felt like a fortune. The second was breathtakingly cheap. The third was sensible. I  went with sensible. Six months later the job was finished, on budget, and the team handed me a beautiful personalised breadboard to say thanks. The builder himself is still on my speed-dial when I need a hand with something, and I count him as a friend now.

Choosing a managed IT provider is exactly the same. The cheapest is usually the worst. The most expensive isn’t necessarily the best. And the one you actually want is the one who’ll still be there next February, picking up the phone, getting the job done, and not vanishing when something goes pear-shaped.

So now you’re asking ‘but how do I pick them’ – consider this…

  • Remember that value is far more important than price. I only want to pay for what I need.
  • How many engineers will understand my business? I can’t afford to wait for my ‘project manager’ to get back from holiday for support!
  • Consider where they’re located – how quickly can they be at my office or site if something is seriously wrong?
  • Look for red flags – Are they being transparent? Are they dodging questions? Does my gut says they’re already being unreasonable?
  • Will they spend an hour with me and let me meet some of the engineers who will be supporting me?
  • And will they be able to support my plans for the business for at least the next three years?

Don’t pick on price first

I know – every IT firm says this, and you’re rolling your eyes already. But it’s true.

The money matters. Of course it does. But it’s the third or fourth thing you should be weighing up, not the first. Because if you pick the cheapest, you’ll spend the next year either changing them again or working round the gaps. Either of those costs you more than the saving did.

Pick on fit first, on capability second, and on price third. You’ll come out ahead.

Look for a firm roughly your shape

This is the one most small businesses get wrong, and it goes both ways.

If you’re a 25-person business, you don’t want a national outfit whose smallest clients are 200 seats. You’ll be the runt of their portfolio. Your tickets will sit in a queue behind their bigger clients. Their engineers will fly in and out without ever getting to know your people, your kit or your quirks – and that’s if you ever see an engineer in person!

Equally – if you’re a 25-person business with two offices, an accounts package, a slightly dodgy line-of-business app from 2014 and ambitions to grow, you don’t want one chap working out of his spare bedroom either. Lovely as he might be. Because what happens when he’s on holiday? What happens when you need a project doing while he’s busy fixing somebody else’s problem?

You want a firm with enough depth that there’s always somebody picking up the phone, but small enough that they actually know who you are when you ring.

Local matters more than people think

I’ll declare an interest here – I run an IT firm in Kent, and most of our clients are in Kent or just over the border. So of course I’d say this.

But hear me out. When something goes properly wrong – when a server’s fallen over and you’ve got 30 staff sitting on their hands at quarter to nine – the difference between an engineer who can be with you in 40 minutes and one who’s “scheduling a site visit for Tuesday” is the difference between a small headache and a very bad day. You can’t get that back from a national help desk three counties away.

Local also means they understand local. They know which industries are big round here, what the broadband options actually are at your address, which suppliers are good to deal with and which you should swerve. That stuff doesn’t show up on a website but it’ll save your bacon every other month.

Bench strength – what happens when your favourite engineer’s off?

This one’s worth pushing on.

Every IT firm has a brilliant person somewhere. The question is whether they’ve got two brilliant people, or three, or just the one. Because if it’s just the one, what happens when she’s on holiday in Cornwall and your email server packs in?

Ask straight out: how many engineers do you have, and what happens when one of them is unavailable? Then ask: will the same person look after my account most of the time, and who’d cover them? A good provider will tell you. They’ll probably introduce you to both people. A bad one will mumble.

You want a firm where the team knows your business, but the team has more than one person in it.

Do they do everything you’ll need in three years?

Most small businesses pick an IT firm based on what they need today. Then in two years’ time they want to do something new – move to the cloud, set up a new office, roll out a CRM, get serious about cyber security – and their IT firm can’t do it. So they end up either changing provider or running two providers, and both options are a faff.

Look at the firm’s full list of services. Not just what you’ll need on Monday morning. Cyber security planning. Disaster recovery. Cloud migrations. Phone systems. Microsoft 365 management. The proper proactive monitoring stuff. If they only do break-fix support, they’re not really a managed services provider – whatever the marketing says.

Spend an actual hour with them

Not a sales pitch over Teams. An hour, in your office or theirs, sat round a table with the people who’d actually be looking after you.

Watch how they listen. Do they ask questions about your business, or do they just want to talk about their service catalogue? Do they explain things in plain English, or do they hide behind acronyms? Do you actually like them?

You’re going to spend more time talking to your IT firm than you do to half your staff. If you don’t enjoy the meeting, you definitely won’t enjoy the next two, three or five years.

Red flags to walk away from

A few that should make you say “thanks for your time” and head for the door:

  • They can’t or won’t connect you with a current client. No exceptions. If nobody will vouch for them, there’s a reason.
  • They quote you a price before they’ve even seen what you’ve got. That’s not a quote. That’s a guess dressed up smartly.
  • They lock you in for three or five years with eye-watering exit clauses. Anyone who needs that long a tie-in to make their numbers work has a business-model problem, and you’d be paying for it.
  • They’re vague about what’s not included. This catches the wobbly ones every time.
  • Your gut says no. Don’t override your gut. It’s right more often than not.

And then?

Give it a week or a fortnight before you sign anything. Sit with the proposals. Ring the reference clients they gave you. Ask awkward questions you forgot to ask first time. Read the contract properly – not the headline, the actual clauses.

Then pick the firm you’d want sat next to you when something hits the fan.

If you’d like to come and meet our team in Hersden – have a cup of tea, ask the awkward questions, kick the tyres a bit – give me a call on 01227 371375. We’ll be glad you did. And if it turns out we’re not the right fit, I’ll point you at someone who is.

If you’re already thinking we might be right for you, but would like to read more about exactly how we support businesses like yours, click through to our managed IT service page, and we’ll run you through the details and what happens next.

Jacqui Offen IT Director, JJ Systems UK Ltd